I apologize for not adding to my post that items to be purchased should be presented to the general membership for approval or at least make sure you are following your bylaws as to how spending decisions are made.
I'd also like to add that when you do make purchases for your school, communicate that to your parents in a newsletter and at your next meeting. Make sure everyone sees that the money they raised is being put to good use!
None of you mentioned asking your membership how to spend those funds.
The parents should be involved with that decision too- not just the board.
It is not unreasonable to have some money set aside for years that fundraising is not successful or to save for a big ticket item (with the blessing and voting approval of the membership). The red flag for IRS is having more than half of your budget in reserve (based on a three year average).
It IS unreasonable to have such a large sum with no plans to spend it on something specific.
Speaking as a parent, you would not get another dime from me until you dusted off your checkbook and spent a lot of that money before asking me for some more.
I am Secretary of our PTO and our county and state bylaws require we spend down our donations and revenues by the end of the year. We will only have a little to start the next year. As a new officer, you should first get acquainted with what your city/county and state financial bylaws require. Secondly, as a parent, I would be complaining also. I put money in for a fundraiser, what is it going to? In a money market? So not all of it is going to the children? Thirdly, it is reasonable to assume there are parents with children who have already moved on in years, whose money is still sitting in that money market account, collecting capital gains/dividends. Uh, oh. Right now you have parents complaining, after a while, the fundraising will probably go down. I'm not a lawyer nor CPA (but I like to play one) but your executive board needs to reconsider this, I don't know how long your PTO has been able to do this money market, but you just haven't gotten the "right" complaining parent yet.
I'm totally with you on spending down the funds! This dilemma has come up several times on the boards. I've never been able to figure out why groups want to hold on to money without a specific plan for it. I don't blame your parents for complaining, I'd complain too and then I'd stop fundraising.
My recommendation is to ask the principal and teachers for a BIG wish list of items for the school, then have your PTO board sit down and review that list, set an amount to spend and select items from the list until the determined amount has been exhausted. You can also look at this year's budget and designate areas to increase for the next school year like the classroom allotments and library. I'm not saying to spend every cent you have. You need start up funds for the next school year, and a SMALL cushion is always nice in case a fundraiser doesn't come out as expected, but keeping large amounts of cash in the account is just silly. Spend it on the kids!
Our PTO has raised a lot of money over several years and has had a habit of saving a lot. Much of it goes into a money market to save for an 'emergency,' while the rest gets spent minimally and/or carried over to the next year. I am not sure what kind of an emergency would require $20,000. We have had parents complaining that we do a lot of asking for money and donations and that they don't actually see what comes from it. We have spent funds on technology which isn't always obvious to a parent who is less involved. We spend money on library books, art supplies, AR tests, and teachers all get $150 to spend for the year for their classroom. Near the end of the school year, we also request a wish list from teachers and staff for large ticket items such as rugs, shelves, printers, etc. Being an officer this year, I would like to spend more on the school, teachers, and students, but how do I convince a few others that idea? Half of our officers want to spend more while the others are more conservative. Am I wrong to want to spend down our purse of $30,000? Thanks for your help!
